We’ve been off the grid the past few days, so I thought I’d just write down some notes until I have time to write out full posts.

Day 8: Horseshoe Bend

For some reason we didn’t stop here last time we were in Page — I think we didn’t realize how close it was to the hotel. Anyway, we made sure to visit this time. We meant to go back at sunrise, but instead decided to rest and get some well-deserved sleep.

Day 8 & 9: Lower and Upper Antelope Canyon

Combined (or even individually), these were the most expensive excursions of our entire trip. However, I’ve wanted to go for awhile so I decided to suck it up, pay the fees, then check them off the list so we’ll never need to go again.

Day 9 & 10: Bryce National Park

Planning the trip, this was the Utah park I most wanted to see. We didn’t spend a lot of time there (nor did we see most of the park), but we visited out the main lookout points in the Bryce Amphitheater and we’ll have to explore more sometime in the future.

Day 11-13: Great Basin National Park

Now we were really off the grid — 2 full days of camping in Great Basin National Park. To tell you the truth, I knew nothing about Great Basin National Park other than they feature a really gnarly tree on their America the Beautiful coin design (bristlecone pine). Aside from our camping woes and the cold weather, we had a fun time exploring this less-frequented park.

Day 13 & 14: Mono Lake

I’ve wanted to return here since our afternoon visit during our road trip in April 2009. I knew it had photographic potential (although Travis did not agree). I was happy to prove him wrong this morning.

Day 14 & 15: Yosemite National Park

And soon we shall embark upon our journey up and down the Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park (finally!). To recap, we’ve been to Yosemite three times (Feb 2013, April 2011, Oct 2010) and the Tioga Pass was closed every time. We’re looking forward to finally seeing parts of the park we haven’t yet had the opportunity to see.

On another note, this vacation is exhausting.